About These Notes

Hi! I’m Andy Matuschak. You’ve stumbled upon my working notes. They’re kind of strange, so some context might help.

These notes are mostly written for myself: they’re roughly my thinking environment (Evergreen note-writing as fundamental unit of knowledge workMy morning writing practice). But I’m sharing them publicly as an experiment (Work with the garage door up). If a note seems confusing or under-explained, it’s probably because I didn’t write it for you! Sorry—that’s sort of an essential tension of this experiment.

love that recording music has become easy enough that even beginners can express themselves. Furthermore, I applaud the fearlessness of newbies who grapple with technology, try to make sense out of today’s complex tools, and persevere to record and mix their music.

Yet, it’s still not that easy to obtain a “professional” sound when you’re starting out. Having taught classes, presented workshops, and worked with beginners, I’ve heard some truly original and refreshing music — however, there are often easy-to-avoid mistakes that drag down those bedroom productions. Like uninvited guests at a dinner party, here are 10 common mistakes that keep surfacing and are easy to correct.